The Getty Trust announced earlier this month that the fourth edition of its PST Art programme will focus on ties between Los Angeles and the Pacific Rim, with the initiative set to open across Southern California in September 2030. The research cycle begins immediately, with nonprofit cultural organisations located in any of Southern California’s eight counties eligible to submit letters of inquiry for funding by 1 June 2026.
The next PST Art will highlight exchange around the Pacific across several centuries, from the arrival of Chinese porcelain in the Spanish missions to the influence of Japanese visual culture on the city's architecture and design, to the ongoing impact of contemporary Korean pop culture.
The 2030 theme also has a diplomatic dimension, according to Justine Ludwig, who was hired last year as then first-ever creative director of PST Art. "During this period marked by geopolitical tension, immigration conflicts and global instability, the theme also encourages international perspectives and recognises our longstanding interdependence," Ludwig said in a statement.
Tyrus Wong, Dragon's Den menu cover, around 1935 The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens
The next edition of PST Art will be realised through a two-stage funding model: a research and planning phase followed by an implementation phase. Eligible applicants must be registered nonprofit cultural organisations based in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Riverside, San Bernardino, or Imperial counties. Since its founding in 2002, PST ART has instigated more than 200 exhibitions, 120 publications, and thousands of public programmes and performances across Southern California. (Some PST Art exhibitions have subsequently traveled to other cities and regions.)
The Getty also announced plans for a PST Art Open House event in 2027. The one-day public programme mixing performances, conversations and hands-on workshops will mark the 15th anniversary of the inaugural edition of PST Art, which examined the Los Angeles art scene between 1945 and 1980. (Subsequent editions of PST Art have been devoted to connections between Los Angeles and Latin America in 2017-18 and the intersections of art and science in 2024-25.)
